Not sure about Crazy-fly - some of their stuff looks great, but don t really see it around much. Was wondering if anybody has any feedback on either of these models. Am used to riding stiff boards - so am leaning more towards the pro-tour, but am interested in what you think. Also, they have a flex/stiffness rating on the CF website saying the pro tour is 1000 and the raptor pro 790. Anybody know what this means? obviously a higher rating means a stiffer flex pattern, but what sort of rating is it? And how might other performance boards measure up on the same scale? Cheers guys.

Yes the 'pro-tour' (multi coloured) model is more freestyle orientated, and the raptor pro ltd (nice carbon looking job) is more a free-ride board. I can guess what each may be like, my concern is that the raptor pro ltd may be a little soft for my liking. They look great - the question is whether they perform as well as they look.

Crazy Fly Boards are some of the absolute best around. both in performance and build quality. They will last you longer than any other board, and if it breaks for any reason CF's customer service and warranty is unbelievable.

I know tons of people who ride all the different models. the raptor LTD is way to stiff for my liking, but if you like a stiff board, its what you want. The raptor pro is a great agressive cross over.

Really depends what you want, I ride an all around for light wind and raptor pro when powered up.

I think boards are like anything its about what you try and feels good, and often its about the conditions you try it in. If you are perfectly powered the day you try it, the tide, waves, flats, etc all line up you are gonna love most boards on the market. If the starts dont a line you hate the board.

Like I said build quality is amazing on these boards and performance as well.

I've ridden the raptor pro a few times but not quite enough to get 100% idea about what it can do. It is a stiff ride for sure. I have an older all round that is comparably stiff due to its beefyness. The Pro does feel nice, lots of pop, way more than the shox custom which is a nice board. The Shox custom is double concave on the bottom plane of the board, I believe the LTD is Gull wing meaning deep double concave in the middle plus more concave towards the rails. Really phenomenal performance in the chop but may have a tendency to skip from wave to wave in the chop if you are hauling ass. No biggie. The Raptor pro works well in the chop too, I think it flexes nice to soften the sloppy waters but it is also single concave. I feel like the single concave shapes are very forgiving on landings creating a small pocket of air between the water and board on impact. If you are looking for something super stiff with lots of pop, check out the RRD style. The 2013s are sick. I have the 2012 and the Raptor Pro's pop does not compare to the amount of pop that the style has. I haven't ridden the Raptor LTD but I've handled it in shops before and the profile is very nice but I don't believe there is any stiffening patterns to the nose/tail of the board. I.E. When you load up on the LTD the board will flex on the tail where the board is in the water. Every board does this but the Style, and boards like the Litewave Storm have a ripple like shape to the core and laminates that begin outside of each foot and go from rail to rail. What this does is stiffen the entire nose and tail outside of the flex points where your feet are so when you load up, the whole nose/tail flexes to increase pop. If you search google images for RRD Style 2012, you can easily see the wave flex pattern I'm talking about, not so easy to see on the 2013 models. Anyways, you said you are looking for high performance and you need to delineate what performance characteristics you are looking for. The Style is also single concave but feels incredible on landings. I would also suggest the RRD Poison. The board has a longer waterline length this year so its great in chop. It performs great for freestyle too, my boss and all my buddies have one.